It is old to couple containers together end to end so that they may be lifted as a unit. It is often desirable to have containers which are 20 foot long for purposes of transporting goods by way of a vehicle driven van. For purposes of transporting containers in a container ship, the apparatus for loading the ship will only handle 40 foot containers. The means utilized heretofore for enabling one container to be coupled to another container has been unsophisticated, slow and unreliable.
See U.S. Pat. No. 3,317,219 wherein one container is stationary and the other container is driven by a tractor until the containers are sufficiently close whereby the containers can be coupled into a single unit. The means disclosed in said patent requires great skill on the part of the driver who is moving the tractor in a reverse direction and whose vision is blocked by the container being moved by the tractor.
The present invention recognizes the problems associated with the prior art such as the teachings of said patent and presents a reliable solution in the form of a method which eliminates the need for skill on the part of the driver.